I’ve come across a lot of teaching and e-learning websites in my day, but Thattutorguy.com is one of those sites that seems like it could be really good and then kind of lets you down. Chris, the owner of the site, films himself tutoring on a variety of math topics and then stock piles them onto a website. His approach strays away from the traditional lecture because he shows students exactly how to do the problems. At first glance, the site is both comprehensive and engaging— Chris certainly is a character —however, something is lacking. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe after you read the pros and the cons below you’ll be able to help me figure it out.

Likes

– Chris’ personality is fun and I can see students really being able to relate to him. There are two students in my daughter’s class whose families have purchased the service and they both “enjoy his straight-to-the-point lessons.” He is relatively young, energetic, and has attitude. He tells it like it is and gets right to the point in his lessons. That’s highly refreshing and works great when catering to young audiences.
– There are a lot ofmath subjects to explore such as Pre-Algebra, College Algebra, Calculus, and Trig. He has archived a wide array of topics, which makes it super easy for subscribers to find exactly what they are looking for. The search tool is quick and effortless, and he also allows users to vote on which classes he should put up next.
– Chris has ten years of professional tutoring experience, however parents may want to see an outline of his resume or know more about his professional training/schooling.
– The website works on phones and tablets, which is excellent for busy students on the go.
– I also thought his “Flipping the Classroom” idea was great. This model works for a lot of people. Chris claims that it is better to use online videos to expose students to new material before class. Therefore, instead of seeing the material for the first time in a fast-moving lecture, students can get acquainted with the information by watching a pre-taped lecture on their own time.

Dislikes

– Chris says he isn’t a teacher, but in a later video on his philosophy page he explains his “teaching style.” Is he contradicting himself here?
– No free trial or coupons, instead subscribers can get 7 days for seven bucks.*
– Very casual vibe to the entire website. At first I thought this might be a good thing, but the more I read the more mistakes I found. For example, the poor writing: “The videos on this site are aimed exclusively at teaching students what they need to know, now how to prove or derive what they need to know.” I know Chris is a math tutor, but typos take away from a site’s credibility.
– Chris says you don’t have to watch the videos in order, but then he says that the information in the lessons builds on previous lessons. Isn’t that another contradiction? Wouldn’t it help to watch them in order? He explains in his welcome video that the chapters are designed to be self-contained, so if you just need help on one topic, you could probably just watch that chapter. Then he says that once you figure out which chapter you want to watch, it’s best to start at the beginning of that chapter because everything builds.
– Lastly, I found him to be a little rude. One his Frequently Asked Questions page he writes, “If you wanted to watch a math genius derive every equation in your book… you’re already getting that every day in math class! While those sites may sound great in theory, once you start trying to use them you find that they are so egg-head and lecture-driven.” Professors who have dedicated their lives to helping students learn are not egg-headed.

I think the overall issue I have with this website as a whole is not the content, Chris is an extremely intelligent and gifted tutor, but it feels too homemade. It’s lacking the professional tone and quality of its competition. this doesn’t matter, but I also find all those t’s in the web address to be highly distracting. The actual videos are clear and well-made, but the rest of the site could use some work. You can only watch a few videos for free, which may also be a problem for some potential clients. Paying customers, want more samples. It’s nice to know what you’re signing up for before you pay for the service. There are many similar sites to Thattutorguy.com (such as Mathworld.com or Educator.com) and I think Chris might have a hard time differentiating himself from the lot…especially when those other sites are free or very inexpensive.

this review is bullshit, i totally disagree.by the way when you said chris is contradicting and talking about his teaching skills, tutors are private teachers, typically one who teaches a single student or a very small group.So technically they would have their own teaching methods.something else id like to point out is that you have typos too so dont point out his if you have so many retard. you should have included statistics in your review before asking to see his resume, if he is effectively teaching students than you shouldn’t be talking. when you talk about chris being rude.he is pointing out the truth, lectures are annoying and nobody likes them, unless your some 70 year old professor just hating on him.
overall i disagree with your review, but it was effective, and well done.

Maybe “Anonymous” just needs to grow some chest hair, like a real man. Only weeaboos and androgynous tai-lady-boys shave their chest.

As far as this review goes, I think you should stick to the actual subjects and his content. Not nit-picking a few typos or finding what you perceive as “contradictions” in his mission statements. For example, he simply means that he doesn’t sit there like a college professor and drag on 20 minutes of information for 2 hours to fill time in an attempt to validate his or her paycheck. He’s to the point in all his videos, as you already stated in your review.

One key thing that I like in his videos is that he does examples and points out “burn” problems. I would often ask teachers a hypothetical question on a subject, and they would blow it off and say “don’t worry about it”, then proceed to apply the concept I was asking about into the test, causing problems. Chris tends to not only do a lot of examples, but point out and explain these kinds of things. Like the difference between (-2)^2 and -2^2.

The search function also works really well for finding specific topics, better then youtube and other sites I’ve tried.

Is website worth the price? Well I’ve paid $35 an hour for a personal tutor, racking up a huge bill, but found $1 a day price tag of thattutorguy to not only be far cheaper, but also much easier to get information from.

Sure there’s plenty of free resources out there, but sifting through different youtube channels, searching google and fishing around is time that could have been spent studying.

If you’re broke and living off noodle cups, you might wanna save your money. But if you got spare change, I think the $1 a day is hardly a waste for what the site offers.

“Chris says he isn’t a teacher, but in a later video on his philosophy page he explains his “teaching style.” He’s contradicting himself”

I feel you’re just being difficult with the above criticism. You understand full well how he is using the word “teaching” in this context. Let’s not slice semantic hairs. Your other points are well received.

This guy seems to be a bit of a narcissist, I prefer KhanAcademy so far, it has videos on most subjects and teaches you from scratch, however, the videos are in steps, so let’s say you want to learn quadratics, to actually start knowing quadratics you need to go back and learn polynomials first.

It’s all pretty thorough though, it’s like an online lecture, for free!

I’ve used thattutorguy.com and find it useful to review all the videos prior to a final. I don’t think his site is (nor is it intended to be) a replacement for traditional teaching. That said, Chris explains things in a way which really reinforces and clarifies the material I’ve learned over the semester.

As far as being able to view the videos in any order….. I think that claim is intended for students like myself who are comfortable with the basics but struggling with a particular concept. In this case, it’s nice to be able to navigate to the topic I want without wading through the preceding videos, searching for the concept. It stands to reason that a student who has no prior knowledge of a subject like trigonometry, for example, would need to start at the beginning.

Being able to focus on the concepts being discussed rather than his personality (or chest hair for crying out loud) is something which comes with age. I don’t care for the clothes my professor wears or the silly math puns he throws out in predictable 15 minutes increments, but I’m mature enough to overlook it and focus on what’s being taught.

One final thought: I think the site is too expensive. I don’t think what’s offered is worth $30 a month. $10 a month seems more appropriate.

I have to say that I did find him “Chris” to be a little cocky at times(especially during his videos). I did pay for the $7 trail and I cant say I regret it nor I am glad I did it.
I found the way he teaches a little interesting, he “tutors” by just doing problems and explains the way to approach it. Also, It seems that he assumes you know a lot of the short cuts as well as how to use algebra perfectly which I believe at times might be necessary to show those little extra steps to fully show what he is doing.
I also found several mistakes during the videos. I wish there was a way to show those mistakes and let the watcher know about them. Youtube those seem to be better at this with the little messages they have popping around that the author can add after the mistakes have been found.

I have to admit, that everyone learns different but, I have found that he is not the right person for me.
Youtube does offer a lot of free videos with different people teaching (PatrickJMT, etc.) material differently and this actually helps me more than just having one guy do everything.

I wish he did offer a few more free videos so that this shows you how he “tutors” the material and gives you a better point of view to see if you would like to actually pay for his service.

His website claims that it is a $7 trail for seven days and $30 after every month. However, whenever I found myself canceling the service after my trail was over, he offers you a $17/month ONE TIME DEAL OFFER.

Again, he is not for me but if you find you like him you should definitely try him out.
I do think his attitude should change a little bit though (maybe its just me but he does come across a little high of himself or something like that) or its just me.

I feel that Chris is…alright. His explanations are pretty thorough and he keeps your attention. But seeing as I’m still a minor, showing TTG website to my parents was a little awkward. I wanted my parents to subscribe after I watched a couple of his free videos, but they declined. Chris kind of lacks the polish that other sites that offer subscriptions have. Another thing: why is his more expensive than some others? His teaching (but he’s not a teacher?) philosophy speaks for itself, but I can’t see myself paying that much for it, when Youtube is free and unlimited.

Chris from ThatTutorGuy.com here! I wish I had known you were reviewing our site, so that we could have comped you a membership so that you and your daughter could look around and actually watch some of the videos rather than basing your review on a few cosmetic elements of the <1% of the site which is visible to non-members.

Because you didn't sign up, the majority of your comments concern written content on a few obscure "about us" pages which almost nobody even looks at. As the commenter above remarked, students don't come to the site for my biograpy or philosophy (or chest hair for that matter), nor do they care what label I self-apply to my services (tutoring, teaching, helping, etc.). All that matters is that our customers get the math (and soon science) help they need, and as you can see from the lovely comments on our facebook page, our customers are grateful and happy and give the videos lots of credit for improving their relationship with math! (And for every comment on our facebook page, there are 20 more people who emailed us directly.)

I'm so excited to have helped so many people in the short time the site has been up, and I look forward to helping many more. Since I'm sure many students find your review when considering signing up for our site, please contact me directly to try the site out rather than judging from a few typos!

I am new to thattutorguy’s website, but taking your comments at face value they were not very elucidating concerning his ability and seemed superficial…doesn’t seem like you have a problem with his effectiveness yet you highlight the most irrelevant observations which adds nothing to the discussion…which is whether students should invest our scant resources for his tutor ledge.

you complain about typos but at the end of your post you write ”worst” when it should be ”worse”.
I think thatturorguy has an annoying, too many hand gestures, faggy personality. I disagree that people will enjoy his personality he seems weird and needs to shave his chest hair. His explanations are also crap, and he doesnt’ seem too reliable. You can get better vids free from youtube.

Thank you for the correction! I’m not sure if “faggy” is the best word to describe him or if his chest hair influences his teaching, but I do agree… there are much better videos on Youtube. I appreciate your comment. If you feel strongly about any other instructional websites or think I should write a review about any one in particular let me know!

the site promises that if you cancel you’ll still get the time you paid for, that’s not true because I signed up for six months and cancelled so it wouldn’t run over and my access to the site was denied.

While I agree with you that typos and grammatical errors take away from the professional feel of a website, I must say that the core issue you have with Chris is not that he does not have a grasp of the subject, etc. but your issues with him are on matters that are not particularily important to math students who need guidance on a subject.
I found out about Chris earlier this evening on youtube while searching for a video on Calculus Derivative Functions. His explanation of the subject was so wonderful, to the point and thorough, that I am considering subscribing to his website.
Most students will “forgive” Chris for any deconstructive remarks so long as he clears the topic for them.

He is a very engaging tutor that does a good job explaining math topics. I believe I highlighted that point in my review. I can only offer my opinion on different educational sites and share my family’s experiences with the services. I did find a lot of contradicting statements on his website, but of course that does not take away from his ability to teach a math problem. I appreciate your feedback. Every common adds a different and valuable perspective.